some thoughts on the matter:
(Mobygames isn't 100% accurate going by the fact NL doesn't have the staff credited for WA, NH doesn't have the handful of new staff added for 2.0 and Splatoon 3's credits are incomplete, the site doesn't have TOTK credits yet and I can bet you AC staff have worked on that, and the total number also includes localisation staff for all regions, who are working on lots of things at once... but it's a good rough figure. At some point I'd like to do a more in-depth investigation, but it's such a mammoth task I'm not sure where to begin)
- HD game development is much more expensive, time-consuming and requires more people than GameCube/Wii/3DS game development, and is a lot more work for a lot less. A lot of studios went under as a result of the transition in the mid 00s, and Nintendo themselves had a very rough transition into HD that nearly sank them, which is why the Switch exists in the first place, and one of the reasons why the free update model exists (alongside "it's a game you're going to be playing for a bit at a time for a long time" and "it keeps games relevant for longer, as the updates drive conversation around the game").
- Nintendo games using the free update model generally only last at minimum 6 months and at maximum 2 years (and in both instances of it being 2 full years, it's Splatoon, a game that's had multiple HD entries and generally knows how to use the update system well). Just over 18 months for the first HD game in a series is actually kinda unprecedented, tbh
- there's also a lot of crossover between dev staff of these games going by Mobygames, because huh, turns out a lot of the staff at Nintendo EPD move around between groups a lot and they're not concrete dev teams as people seem to think:
(Mobygames isn't 100% accurate going by the fact NL doesn't have the staff credited for WA, NH doesn't have the handful of new staff added for 2.0 and Splatoon 3's credits are incomplete, the site doesn't have TOTK credits yet and I can bet you AC staff have worked on that, and the total number also includes localisation staff for all regions, who are working on lots of things at once... but it's a good rough figure. At some point I'd like to do a more in-depth investigation, but it's such a mammoth task I'm not sure where to begin)
- these people are inevitably going to have to move onto new games at some point, because Nintendo generally put out around 12 games per year, are heavily reliant on their own IP to sell consoles compared to Sony or Microsoft, and has a staff of around 1000 development personnel internally, and even with external support studios like Monolith Soft or the modelling contract companies that NH employed you're generally not going to be able to support a game forever
- (however, it has to be mentioned that Nintendo is generally working on expanding, including taking on ex-Sony Japan Studio devs when it shut down in late 2020, a lot of new devs for Splatoon, and building a second building next to the first one that will open in 2027)
- NH is also meant to be different from other games in the series and have different things, because making the same game time and time again is boring for the developers and going by LGTTC's sales slump (that caused them to make NL in the first place), the audience, and in addition is meant to be simpler on account of the director of both NL and NH thinking that NL was too geared towards existing fans of the series. This... has not turned out 100% well, to put it lightly, but I think NH is as complete as the devs want it to be (or at worst, were able to make it to be on account of COVID slowing down a lot of things at Nintendo)
- it is almost inevitable that the Switch's successor is being worked on at this point, and has been since at least 2021
- Animal Crossing games generally release 1-3 years into a console's lifespan, meaning the next game's inevitably also being planned by the AC leads (if not already in active development) and has been since shortly after NH 2.0 came out (and given NH's success and Splatoon 3's updates ending next autumn, will probably release very early on in the Swuccessor's lifespan)
- Pocket Camp's furniture is generally of a quality similar to NL's furniture (ie. much simpler than NH's in terms of textures and modelling, so quicker and easier to make), and in the case of stuff that's in both literally uses the same models
- As a result of this, and as a result of being a Microtransaction Hell Gacha Game that needs to attract people in at literally every opportunity so that it actually makes money, it gets a lot more stuff added (although iirc there's a lot of recolours of stuff?)
- if an update happened that ported Pocket Camp furniture over it'd look even worse than the Mario Kart 8 Booster Course Pass does, or it'd have to be remade, which would either take devs away from a new Animal Crossing game or another game in development
